not to gain, to purchase, to earn it, but to inherit it. “I do not claim it as a profitable servant, I am not so foolish as to suppose that I can procure it by any surrender, or exchange, or labour. It comes (to those to whom it comes at all) as an inheritance, to the children of the covenant, the heirs of faithful Abraham. And this heirship is not a natural, but a spiritual one. I am a Jew outwardly, but I do not therefore claim to be certainly a Jew inwardly. They are not all Israel who are of Israel. Abraham’s child according to the flesh, I would also be, what I am not necessarily, what indeed I am not at all of mere natural birthright, Abraham’s child according to the promise.” And next observe, how he seeks to secure the inheritance. “What shall I _do_?” Eternal life is not the reward of service, it is not the fruit of labour, it is the privilege of a spiritual relationship; but still it cannot be enjoyed by those who are indifferent about it, or by those who only desire it. It must be laid hold on by real active efforts; it must be maintained by a particular course of conduct; salvation must be worked out. “What must I do” to secure it? Truly he is an enlightened scribe! He knows that eternal life is the free gift of a GOD, Who is no respecter of persons; Who recognises no birthright, no personal merits; Who will have mercy on Whom He will have mercy: but that yet grace does not fall, as the rain from heaven, alike upon the barren and the fertile, the thankless and the thankful, the careless and the anxious, the indolent and the active; but is ever guided by a discerning and distinguishing hand, is ever bestowed upon righteousness. And so he asks, What is the righteousness that inherits grace: knowing well what was the prescribed righteousness of the law, how men were to be saved in times past; but expecting that under the Gospel, an additional, perhaps a different course was to be followed.